At Orlando Stop, Cheney Defends Iraq War

June 15, 2004|By Beth Kassab, Sentinel Staff Writer

Vice President Dick Cheney told members of a conservative think tank Monday that the United States is making gains in the war on terrorism and cited Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to al-Qaeda in defending the Iraq invasion.

In a speech to the James Madison Institute Policy Forum in Orlando, Cheney repeated President Bush's argument that now is "no time for impatience and self-defeating pessimism" toward the war in Iraq and global terrorism.

Cheney touted what he said were military and diplomatic victories in Afghanistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan but acknowledged there is more work to do.

"The terrorists understand as well as we do that the stakes in Iraq are historic," Cheney said. "As democracy grows their prospects diminish, and they will try with all of the murderous hatred they can muster to prevent both Iraq and Afghanistan from becoming free, self-governing nations. The United States, under this president, will not waiver in our commitment."

The vice president's remarks came the day after U.S. Sen. Bob Graham criticized the administration for losing sight of "the real terrorists" -- namely al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden -- as a result of the war in Iraq. Graham's comments were made during a teleconference with reporters organized by the campaign of Bush opponent and Democrat John Kerry.

Cheney defended the effort in Iraq, calling Saddam Hussein "a patron of terrorism" who paid money to the families of suicide bombers in Israel and said the former Iraqi leader had "long established ties with al-Qaeda."

"If ever there was a place where terrorists might acquire the deadliest weapons, Iraq under Saddam Hussein was it," Cheney told the receptive, mostly Republican crowd of about 500 at the Rosen Centre Hotel on International Drive.

Critics of the administration have said the ties between Saddam and the international terrorist organization headed by bin Laden were unproven and Cheney did not offer any new evidence. A White House spokesperson said the vice president would not take questions from reporters at his two Florida stops Monday.

It was Cheney's second visit to Orlando in a month. He will be followed to the state Wednesday by Bush who will talk to a military crowd in Tampa.

A Kerry spokesman responded to Cheney's speech with questions about the administration's recent report about terrorism.

"Dick Cheney came down to Orlando today to claim they are winning the war on terrorism, but we just found out that even their own State Department assessment of the war was inaccurate," said Mark Kornblau, referring to erroneous figures in the report that indicated terrorism is on the decline. "Either way this administration has made American troops less safe by going to war without a plan to win peace."

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that a State Department report that showed a decline last year in terrorism was erroneous.

"We were wrong," Powell said on Meet the Press.

Cheney said Bush has responded more swiftly and forcefully to terrorism than other administrations, saying, "for decades we settled for mere stability in the Middle East."

"That, too, has changed under this president, and now we seek to help nations build the institutions of freedom," he said.

Cheney left Orlando for a fund-raiser in Panama City late Monday afternoon.